Collecting The Beatles

25 August 2005 to 4 June 2006

Please note that this exhibition has now closed

The Beatles' emergence from the Liverpool music scene in the early 1960s created a remarkable impact across the world.

The band influenced many changes in music and lifestyle, including clothing, hairstyles and attitudes, while Beatlemania created a huge international demand for merchandise.

In 2005 the Museum of Liverpool Life, generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund acquired an exciting group of items spanning The Beatles' careers from the early days in Liverpool through to international acclaim. The new acquisitions went on show for the first time at the museum during the 2005 Mathew Street Festival.

The small display included:

a rare handbill from the Valentine's Day concert at the Locarno Ballroom, Liverpool, 1963

Liverpool music history

These new items were added to our existing collection of Beatles and early Liverpool music related material. Included in this collection is the Peter Kaye Merseybeat photographic archive.

Two of Peter Kaye's Beatles photographs are displayed on this page, showing two sides of the band. The first is from a series in which The Beatles are surrounded by fans on a visit to their hometown. In the second they become fans themselves when meeting one of their own idols, Little Richard.

Other items in the museum's collections which are not currently on display include the stage from St Peter's Church Hall, Woolton where John Lennon, who had been playing as one of the Quarrymen, met Paul McCartney for the first time 6 July 1957.